


More Precious Than Rubies

by Recourse



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Mutual Masturbation, Nude Modeling, background pricerich, whats the timeline? who knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 13:50:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13976460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Recourse/pseuds/Recourse
Summary: Kate's been having a mental block when it comes to escalating the physical side of her relationship with Max. A good talk with Steph and an idea of her own help ease the tension.





	More Precious Than Rubies

**Author's Note:**

> If you're curious about Steph and Chloe, this fic is low-key canon with _[Make Our Circuitry Explode](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13217709)_ ;)

Steph has that look in her eye again.

Kate braces herself. She knows that look. It’s accompanied most of their conversations since Kate first came to Steph with Very Important Questions almost a year ago, and now she’s  getting a full-blast version of it across the cafeteria table.

“What’s on your mind, Steph?” Kate asks, intending to get out ahead of her. Steph puts her chin in her hand and hums.

“Just wondering how you and Max are doing,” she says, a smile tugging up the corner of her mouth. “We haven’t gotten to hang much outside D&D lately.”

“You’re just asking because you’re still smug about setting us up,” Kate accuses playfully.

“Well, yeah, a little of that, but since you two started actually dating instead of just basically dating I wanna know how you’re doing.” Steph drums her fingers on the table. “You were...pretty upset with yourself for a while. Just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Kate takes in a deep breath. She’s been wanting to tell someone for a while, and when Steph had finally suggested that they get together for lunch, she jumped at the chance. It’s not something she can tell anyone else and know it’ll remain secret — as much fun as it is when Chloe’s around, the girl just isn’t subtle, proven by her tendency to make out with Steph whenever there’s a half-second of opportunity. She needed time _alone_ with Steph.

And yet, here she is, presented with a golden opportunity and still clamming up. Steph cocks her head. “That bad, huh?” she says in a soft tone.

“N-no! Not, not bad, exactly,” Kate stammers. “I...I really like being with her, and kissing her, and just...I love her,” she adds bashfully, looking away. “But something keeps...stopping me. When things get, uh, exciting.”

“Oooh,” Steph whistles. “Gotcha.”

“I just...there’s times I want to…” Kate grunts in annoyance at herself, the blocks in her head. “God, I can’t even _say_ it,” she mutters bitterly. “But every time we get close, I get all...I start shaking, and, and I feel dirty, and then I feel guilty because it always makes her worried sick for me and _she_ feels guilty and…”

“And it sucks,” Steph supplies.

“Yeah. It sucks.” Kate crosses her arms, even though it makes her feel a bit like a petulant child. “I know better than that now, I’ve done all my soul-searching and I’ve found my own God and _still_ I just get all...ugh! I feel like, like I just want to be past this. I just want to be able to love her the way I want to.”

“How you were raised doesn’t go away that easy,” Steph tells her, in that calming Wise Lesbian Elder voice she likes to put on whenever she talks to Kate. “Just because you know it in your head doesn’t mean you feel it in your chest, y’know? It’s like...Chloe knows she’s doing good, out here. I always told her she was better than her shitty stepdad said, but she still spent a lot of years living with that prick, especially when we were long-distance. And sometimes, something will come up, something he used to hit her for, and she just loses it. When we first moved in together it was the worst, but we’ve been working on it.”

Kate looks down. It hardly feels fair to compare a slightly strict religious upbringing with Chloe’s years of abuse. But… “How do you work on it?” she asks.

“It took a while. A lot of stuff, like, if I came home and she was playing loud music, she’d hear me open the door and like, scramble to turn it down, get all freaked out, and I’d have to tell her it was okay, it was fine. Enough things like that and eventually she could feel like the response wasn’t necessary.” Steph hums to herself. “Clear rules were important too. They’re important in any relationship, actually, especially with the exact, uh, subject you’re talking about.”

Kate goes red. “But I can barely even talk to her about it,” she protests. “We just kind of...feel it and then stop. It’s hardly — it’s not really romantic if I make her sign a form or something, right?”

Steph laughs. “Don’t get all caught up in what’s supposed to be romantic, Kate. You’d be surprised what can really make you get that oh-shit-I-love-her feeling. And it doesn’t need to be a form. Just let yourself think for a while, decide what you’re comfortable with, think about what makes you go into that freak-out mode and see how you can work past it.” She reaches for her soda and takes a sip. “I know thinking about it is gonna be hard for you, but it’s important that you don’t just hope it goes away on its own. If me and Chloe didn’t talk it’d never work.”

“Right, yeah,” Kate says, worrying her lip. “It’s just...I like it when we can just be together and laugh without thinking about this kind of stuff. I’m a little scared that it’d...change things.”

“Hey, me and Chloe still have plenty of fun!” Steph objects. “Look, you can have a whole D&D session where your girlfriend rolls nat 20s every fucking turn to punch everything in the dick, go home and watch the _Plan 9_ MST episode and drink cocktails and laugh your asses off, and hold each other in bed and cry together about how she wishes her dad was here to see how good she’s got it all in the same day.”

Kate chuckles. “Is it weird that that sounds nice?”

“Not at all. It’s good to share everything with someone. That’s what a girlfriend’s for. You and Max can still be your adorable selves and watch Disney movies and have your duets and make tons of puns at each other, and also pound each other raw ‘till-”

“Steph!” Kate objects, giggling despite herself. Steph smiles wide at her. Kate clears her throat. “I don’t think I’m anywhere near ready for...all of it.”

“So make some small steps. Find something that’s bigger than kissing but smaller than sex,” Steph suggests. “Don’t worry about Max. She’ll be happy to get anything from you. Chloe says she literally never stops talking about how cute you are. Chloe’s got a spray bottle labeled GIRLFRIEND DAMPENER for when she can’t shut up.”

Kate laughs to herself. “I just want to be careful.”

“You’re Kate Marsh. You’re always careful, and you’re creative. You’ll come up with something.”

An image comes to Kate’s head, an idea forming so rapidly it almost takes her breath away, sending little lightning bolts of pleasure through her stomach. “I think I just did,” she says, and Steph just laughs, and wishes her good luck.

 

* * *

 

As Kate and Max come back into the dorms after dinner, Kate notes the light. The golden hour, like Max always talked about. The idea’s been stewing in her mind for a week now, getting more...something every time Kate considers it, making her skin vibrate. Now would work. Now feels good.

“Your place or mine?” Max offers innocently as they stop in the lobby.

“Mine,” Kate says. They head to the east wing, Kate nervously fiddling with the bottom of her cardigan. The talking about it is going to be the hardest part, she knows that...but Steph said that’s an important part, too.

She keys her door and heads in, closing it behind Max. The blinds are drawn so that light peeks through from the top, but no one walking by could see anything. Perfect. She clasps her hands behind her back as Max sets down her messenger bag, and swallows.

“Hey...Max?” she says, shaking a little bit with both nerves and excitement. “You have your camera with you today, right?”

“When do I not?” Max asks, putting a hand to her chest in mock offense. “Kate, it’s like you hardly know me.”

Kate chuckles to herself, then swallows. “I—I was thinking I might want to model for you today.”

“Oh,” Max says hesitantly. “Like—you mean, here?”

“Yeah. Just us.” Kate fiddles with the top button of her blouse.

“...anything bringing this to mind, Kate?” Max asks, looking timid.

“I want you to, um, take pictures of me. To...look at me.” Kate shrugs off her cardigan and lets it drop to the floor. “A-all of me. Do you understand?”

Max’s eyes go wide. “ _Oh._ ” She bites her lip.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and, um, I wanna do it. But...no touching, okay?” Kate asks as she starts unbuttoning her blouse, cheeks burning, staring downward so she won’t have to meet Max’s eyes. “Just pictures.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kate hears Max fumbling for her camera and smiles to herself. She can do this. She _wants_ to do this.

She lets her blouse fall off her shoulders, kicks off her shoes, and unzips her skirt before she looks up at Max again. Her whole face is beet-red, her camera clutched to her chest like a sacred totem. Kate giggles at the sight, despite her own skin being flush down to the collarbone. Seeing Max flustered always felt good, always left Kate with simmering urges to do more. It was always when Max would reciprocate that attention that Kate would suddenly seize.

 _Maybe that’s the trick,_ she thinks, deciding on another rule right then and there. “And don’t tell me how to pose,” she adds, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“R-right,” Max breathes. “Wowser.”  
Kate smiles. Steph was right, Max will really take anything. Kate takes a second to think before posing. She’d originally planned to just strip all the way down, but she’s comfortable right here and now in her underwear. Perhaps later on in the session, or next time, if there is a next time.

Confident in her choice, she nods to herself and sits down on her bed, propping herself up against the wall and crossing her legs. She looks directly at Max’s camera as she positions herself around the small dorm room, taking shots and whisking the film out of her little polaroid to rest them in her messenger bag.

After Max seems uncertain where to go next, Kate changes her position, this time stretching herself across the bed. Max’s lower lip is getting quite swollen from all that biting. Kate breathes steadily, easily, even as Max gets on her knees and straddles Kate to get a shot from above, whispering “Sorry,” as she does, like Kate minds at all.

They still don’t touch. It’s safe. Kate can enjoy the sound of Max’s strained breath, her wide pupils and colored skin, without having anything go off in her head telling her that this is sinful and wrong. She almost wants to pull Max down on top of her as she _clicks_ the camera and pulls the photo out, but Kate stops herself. The whole point of this is restraint.

As Max climbs off, Kate gets up as well, heading over to her chair and sitting with her hands in her lap, staring down at Max as she crouches on the floor to get her against the sunlit blinds. Max licks her lips unconsciously, the same way she does whenever she’s really focused on her work, and Kate has to laugh at the image. The camera goes off with a _click,_ and Max speaks up for the first time.

“You’re really good at this,” she says quietly, like she’s afraid of breaking a spell.

“What? Teasing you?” Kate asks.

“No, I mean modeling. You kinda dominate the frame. The looks you give the camera are…” Max pauses, biting her lip again. “...really hot,” she mumbles, finally, looking away from Kate.

Kate’s stomach does a little flip inside her, and she feels like she’s glowing. Max is so cute when she’s turned on. Kate has the power to do that, and not have to give anything back in return, unless she wants to. And she does...just a bit.

She delicately plucks one of her bra straps off her shoulder and pulls it down her bicep, leaning back to watch Max’s reaction. Max’s camera immediately flies up to her face and she snaps a photo as quickly as she possibly can, and then another when Kate giggles.

Kate closes her eyes for a moment, enjoying the heat of the room, the feeling of Max’s gaze on her body. Chewing lightly on her inner cheek, she makes a decision. She leans forward and unhooks her bra, putting her arms out straight in front of her to let it fall off her body. Max’s posture visibly tightens, but she manages a couple of pictures regardless. Kate falls back again, slyly letting her legs open, and Max practically chokes.

A vision comes to Kate’s mind, beckoning Max forward, taking hold of her hair and pushing her down, and she bites her lip instinctively, her chest rising and falling as she breathes heavily. She won’t. It’d break the moment, and the moment is what’s doing this to Kate. She knows she’s wet, she’s felt it before, doesn’t have to look down to know. Max must see it too, and she knows she doesn’t get to do anything about it without Kate’s say-so. It’s perfect.

Kate stands up, looking at Max fondly as she scrambles to find a new angle. Kate hooks her thumbs into her underwear and slides it down her legs, warmth pulsing through her veins as she meets Max’s eye. The light’s starting to dim; Kate idly wonders if Max’s photos are going to end up well as she hoists herself onto her desk, crossing her legs and putting her hands on top of her knees, giving her a smirk as she looks down on Max, who’s on her knees, no doubt capturing Kate looking like a queen. She feels like a queen. Like she’s in control, despite being the naked one here. She likes that feeling more than she can describe.

As the last of the natural light slips from the room, Kate slips off her desk and approaches Max, who looks awestruck. Kate takes the camera from her hands and puts it on her dresser, then brings her in for a soft kiss. Kate puts her hand to Max’s chest, feeling her heartbeat through her shirt.

Kate pulls herself away, lying down on her bed and patting the space next to her. She’s too hot to breathe. She needs to release some of this tension, she knows. It’s not going away on its own.

Max quickly unlaces her shoes and curls up beside her. “C-can I touch you?” she asks breathlessly, and Kate gives her a smile.

“No,” she says softly, running a hand down her own stomach. “But you can join me.”

Max looks down and watches as Kate slowly reaches between her own legs. She’s done this before, _very_ occasionally, since she and Max started dating. It had just happened one night, after they’d been swimming with Chloe and Steph, and Kate couldn’t get the image of a wet-haired swimsuit-clad Max out of her head.

Max scrambles onto her back, unzipping her jeans with a speed that makes Kate laugh to herself even as she crosses one spread leg over Max’s, as she presses a finger between her lips and lets out a sigh of relief. Max doesn’t disrobe, not fully, just reaching beneath her waistband, another hand going up her shirt. Kate’s dizzy with the feeling that now _she_ gets to watch, and the light brown curls that she just barely spies peeking out of Max’s underwear send another rush through her.

Max’s eyes are toward the ceiling but squeezed tightly shut, her teeth cutting into her lower lip as Kate stares at her, watching the way she squirms, the quick motions of her hands beneath her clothes. Studying what Max might want _her_ to do, someday.

Kate lets her finish first; she’s in no rush, drawing out the moment with soft circles and slow strokes while Max seizes up beside her and lets out a cry, frantically rubbing herself. Max was good today. She’s earned this.

When Max’s body goes limp, her legs falling under Kate’s, she turns her head to Kate and their eyes meet. Max is still panting, and Kate’s getting there herself, she can feel it, she _wants_ it, and she closes her eyes and reaches out one hand blindly for Max, grabbing her collar and pulling her in for a kiss as she peaks.

She bites without meaning to, drawing a surprised gasp from Max. When she finally releases Max’s lips and pulls back a hair, she looks into her eyes and feels something softer spread through her limbs, drawing Max into a contented sideways hug and squeezing her legs together to feel the aftershocks.

Kate’s not sure how to break the moment and get them back to reality until she hears Max breathe in. Before she can get anything out, Kate tells her, “If you say wowser I’m kicking you out of bed.”

Max laughs, body shaking in Kate’s arms. “I wasn’t gonna!” she insists. “But... _wowser,_ though. And you won’t kick me out.”

“No, I won’t.” Kate sighs, nesting her face into Max’s chest. “Thank you.”

“Should I...keep the photos?”

“Mm.” Kate considers for a moment. “If you want, if they turned out good. I trust you.”

“Right, I just have to put them somewhere Chloe won’t find them,” Max says, pulling apart from Kate and letting Kate stay curled up against her side.

“Not everyone’s as nosy as you, Max,” Kate chides gently. She hums, thinking about what to do next. “You wanna...watch a movie and cool off? We have a lot of night left but I _can’t_ study.”

“Sounds perfect,” Max says with a sigh. “...Are you gonna put clothes on?”

Kate shrugs. “Maybe, but no pants. And you don’t get to wear pants either.”

Max immediately jumps up and pushes her jeans down and off her legs, blushing the whole while.

Kate could very much get used to that.


End file.
